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Definition ray

Etymology 1

Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. A beam of light or radiation.
2. (zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
3. (zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
4. (botany) A radiating part of a flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, such as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius.
5. (obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
6. (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
7. (colloquial) A tiny amount.

Verb

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

1. (transitive) To emit something as if in rays.
2. (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.

Etymology 2

From Middle English raye, ray?e, from Old French raie, from Latin raia, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English reyhhe, reihe, re?ge (“ray, skate”), from Old English reohhe (“ray”).

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.

Etymology 3

Shortened from array.

Verb

ray (third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed)

1. (obsolete) To arrange. [14th-18th c.]
2. (now rare) To dress, array (someone). [from 14th c.]
3. (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile. [16th-19th c.]

Etymology 4

From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. The letter ?/?, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

Etymology 5

Noun

ray (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.

Etymology 6

Alternative forms.

Noun

ray (plural rays)

1. (music) Alternative form of re

Results 434 Words with the letters RAY

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